Part of MONO:MONO

A summer night's cycle of queer tales with tender playful music from the Renaissance takes us to Florence. Together with their protagonist, the stage directors duo Vöcks de Schwindt imagines the intimate relationships that men* cultivated there in great frequency and diversity around 500 years ago. It was said of them that they were happily 'florenzen'.

In imagined stories and songs accompanied by lute music, we delve into a seductive world of l'amore masculino, friends with benefits and early modern daddies and twinks. While the German verb 'florenzen' historically referred primarily to gay sex, the piece explores with speculative imagination the emotional connections behind it. Immersed in stories of solidarity and friendship, a picture emerges of what everyday life in Florence might have looked like.

In the tradition of the longing towards Italy as a symbolic place of refuge, liberation and self-discovery, Vöcks de Schwindt bring with this music-theatrical storytelling the past into our present, searching for moments of beauty, closeness and vulnerability in a queer historiography.

Idea / Text / Staging Vöcks de Schwindt Singing / Performance Johannes Worms Lute / Theorbo / Performance Neo Gundermann Dramaturgy Federico Vöcks de Schwindt Costume / Set design Lena Lupo Loy & Wenzel Vöcks de Schwindt Musical consultant Andrés Locatelli Production collaboration Lianne Mol Production Vöcks de Schwindt Co-production Monologfestival 2025 / TD Berlin Announcement photos with the kind support of the Gemäldegalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin With the kind support by Nufferton and Sweef The revival is supported by the Schachtsiek Familien Stiftung

Vöcks de Schwindt are an Argentinian-German stage directors duo. Their works range from autobiographically motivated performances to multilingual drama productions and music theatre. Currently they are exploring questions of migrant identities, queer heritage, male tenderness and the role of rituals in our present days. THE FLORENZER – L'AMORE MASCULINO is the first part of a trilogy that focuses on tales of happy moments in the lives of our queer ancestors. www.voecks-de-schwindt.de

THE FLORENZER – L’AMORE MASCULINO